Your brief
- Home
- Photos of you at gigs, front and centre. Easy to swap out.
- Merch
- A shop on the site itself.
- Gigs
- Upcoming dates with ticket links.
- Mailing list
- A sign-up for fans, replacing the Google Form on your Linktree.
- Contact
- Bookings, press and general messages.
- Style
- Dark and simple. You liked wilt, Ocean Alley and Gurriers.
Colours
I pulled these from your press shot on the Lancaster Music Co-op page: the grey stone, the orange lichen, the grass and the overcast sky. Each design uses them a bit differently.
Design options
Click into each one. A to C are single scrolling pages; D is a full site with separate pages. They're all built with your photo. Your gigs, singles and social links come straight from your Linktree. Products and prices are placeholders until I get the real ones from you. You can also mix bits from different designs.
A: Drystone
Clean and classic. Your photo fills the screen with a big serif name over it.
View design A
B: Photocopy
Rough DIY zine style, like a gig flyer on a pub wall. Loudest of the three.
View design B
C: Low Tide
Minimal and moody. Lots of black, a wide photo and a scrolling merch row.
View design C
D: Dartboard
A full multi-page site in the style of wilt's shop: a home page, shop, product pages, gigs and contact. The home page has a dartboard you can actually play, scored from 501. Hit the bullseye and it gives you a discount code. The bag stays filled as you move between pages.
View design DHow I'd build it
Either option works with any of the designs. The main differences are the monthly cost and whether you want to edit things yourselves.
Option 1: Custom site + Big Cartel
I build the site and host it on Cloudflare. The shop runs on Big Cartel, which a lot of bands use, and I style it to match.
- Cheapest to run. Most of it is free.
- Gigs pull in from Bandsintown, so you add a date once and it shows up everywhere.
- Mailing list on Kit (free up to 10,000 people). I'll move everyone from your current Google Form across, so nobody gets lost.
- Big Cartel's free plan covers 5 products. You'd need Platinum for more.
- For text or photo changes, you send them to me.
Option 2: Shopify
The whole site runs on Shopify with a custom theme in your chosen design.
- You can log in and change photos, gigs, products and stock yourselves.
- Better checkout: Apple Pay, Google Pay, discount codes.
- Works with a card reader for selling at gigs.
- Costs more per month, even when nothing sells.
- Takes a bit longer for me to build.
Cost
One fixed price to build the site, then a small monthly cost to keep it running.
Building the site
15% off as a thank you to Theo for the referral. Fixed price, whichever design and option you pick. No hourly billing.
- Your chosen design built for desktop and phones
- Shop set up with your products, sizes and prices
- Gigs linked to Bandsintown with ticket links
- Music section with your Spotify releases
- Mailing list set up, with your Google Form sign-ups moved across
- Contact form to earlydarts@gmail.com
- Your domain connected and hello@earlydarts.com forwarding
- Google basics, share previews and visitor stats
Monthly running costs
The services the site runs on, at cost, plus £10 a month for me to look after it. You've already paid for your domain, so that's not included. Card fees come off each sale.
Option 1
- Hosting, mailing list, gigs, forms£0
- Big Cartel: free, or Platinum for up to 50 products£0–12
- Hosting and updates from me
£20£10 - Total£10–22
Card fees through Stripe or PayPal: about 1.5% + 20p per UK sale.
Option 2
- Shopify Basic (cheaper if paid yearly)£19–25
- Mailing list, gigs, forms£0
- Hosting and updates from me
£20£10 - Total£29–35
Card fees through Shopify Payments: about 2% + 25p per UK sale.
What the £10 covers
I usually charge £20, but I've halved it for you while you're getting started. It includes:
- Keeping the site, domain and email running
- Up to 30 minutes of changes a month, like new gigs, photos or products
- Security updates and backups
- Sorting it if a payment, form or order goes wrong
- A hello@earlydarts.com address that forwards to your Gmail
Cancel any time with a month's notice.
| Service | Option 1 | Option 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages, free | Included in Shopify |
| Shop | Big Cartel: free (5 products) or about £12/month (50 products) | Shopify Basic: £19/month yearly, £25/month monthly |
| Mailing list | Kit, free up to 10,000 subscribers | Shopify Email or Kit, free |
| Gigs | Bandsintown, free | Bandsintown, free |
| Contact form | Formspree, free | Built into Shopify |
| Print on demand | Printful, pay per item sold | Printful, pay per item sold |
First year in total
- Option 1: £420.75 build + 12 months at £10–22£540.75–684.75
- Option 2: £420.75 build + 12 months at £29–35£768.75–840.75
After the first year it's only the monthly cost. Extras from the list below are quoted separately if you want them.
Third-party service prices checked October 2026 and exclude VAT. I'll check them again before we launch.
Extras for later
The core site covers everything in your brief. These can go in now or any time after launch.
- Spotify players so people can play EMILY without leaving the site
- Photo gallery of past gigs
- Band page with who plays what
- Press kit for promoters: bio, photos, logo
- Discount code for people who join the mailing list
- Release page with a countdown and pre-save links
- Limited merch drops with early access for the list
- An editor so you can change Option 1 yourselves
What I need from you
- Which design you like (A, B, C or D), or which bits of each.
- Option 1 or 2. Happy to chat it through.
- How you'll send merch. Will you post it yourselves, or should I set up print on demand so you don't have to buy stock up front?
- Your products and prices for launch.
- Photos from gigs in high res, plus any logo or artwork.
- Band members. The Co-op page lists three of you but you mentioned four, so send me names and who plays what.
- Links. I've got your Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Spotify from your Linktree. Send me your SoundCloud, and let me know if you're on Bandsintown.
- A launch date, if there's a gig or release you want it ready for.